The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.

Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.

Thanks to all who participate. — JJ Koczan

Days of Rona: Tony Reed of Mos Generator (Port Orchard, Washington)

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How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?

I’m in a few bands and this is potentially and most likely going to force us to cancel or reschedule quite a few gigs including a short tour for Hot Spring Water and some festival gigs for Mos Generator and Big Scenic Nowhere. Everybody is scrambling to reschedule and that will make it difficult to get these postponed shows in anytime this year. Many bands and promoters have put down money for merch, flights, hotels, etc. and that money may or may not get lost because of all this. Let’s hope that we can at least get these costs back over time by the rescheduled shows or online sales.

Everybody seems to be in good health at this point. There are frequent check-ins by call or text.

What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?

Everything is closed but essentials.

How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?

The “stay home – stay safe” push has certainly turned our small town (Port Orchard, WA) into a ghost town and Seattle seems to be almost completely abandoned. On March 14th I played a show on the last night that music venues were allowed open in our town and because of these shut downs it’s possible that many venues won’t be able to make it through this and will be forced to [close permanently]. Some of these venues are places that have been on our gig circuit for years.

What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?

Personally I’m not effected very much as I work from home mixing and mastering records and 85 percent of my work is sent to me over the internet. The band is financially effected by the loss of revenue that helps keeps the machine rolling and in some weird way we are mentally effected by not being able to share our music to a live audience. That means a lot to us. Along with band issues, like everybody else, we are concerned with the health of our friends and loved ones.

http://www.facebook.com/MosGenerator
http://www.instagram.com/mos_generator
https://mosgenerator.bandcamp.com/
http://heavyheadsuperstore.storenvy.com/

As they get ready to hit Germany’s Freak Valley festival this coming weekend and play to a sold-out crowd supporting their recent Listenable Records debut, Electric Mountain Majesty (review here), Port Orchard, Washington, heavy rock specialists Mos Generator have officially launched their Heavy Home Grown series of DIY releases. Guitarist/vocalist Tony Reed has issued an update with info on the series, which begins with a live set recorded at Nuemo’s in Seattle back in 2006 and a collection of demos from their past two albums, and frankly, it looks like an awesome project. The demos have already sold out on preorders, and both come with minimal-but-handmade packaging and band-written info about each release.

From producing his own stuff to overseeing art and more, Reed‘s always been a hands-on kind of guy, so this kind of thing was really inevitable, and for fans, a great way to dig deeper into what Mos Generator do while supporting them directly.

Dig it:

We have started a series of releases that will be called “Heavy Home Grown”. These packages will be very DIY and assembled by us. The first in the series is Mos Generator Live at Neumos in Seattle 3/17/2006. The second will be the “Electric Nomads” demos hand crafted Lps that are limited to 100 copies and are already sold out just on pre-orders. I have been digging through the vaults and gathering a lot of cool material for future releases.

We have recorded hundreds of shows over the years on audio and video and we would like to make some of the better performances available for those who are interested. There are also 14 years of demos laying around so this series could see quite a few releases. Each one will also have an insert with a few paragraphs about what is on the disc. -TR

https://www.facebook.com/MosGenerator/
http://heavyheadsuperstore.storenvy.com/

Mos Generator, “Sleeping Your Way to the Middle” Live in Seattle, March 17, 2006